The Joker's Wild Wikia
The Joker's Wild is an American internet television game show. Contestants answered questions based on categories that were determined randomly by a mechanism resembling a slot machine. The show's title refers to the game's slot-machine mechanism also having jokers. The show is also billed as "the game where knowledge is king and lady luck is queen." The show began airing in 2015 on Mental, and is currently airing and in production. While the original television show was hosted by its creator, Jack Barry (until his death in May of 1984), this version of the show is hosted by Michael Riley and, unlike its predecessor, features rotating contestants, most of which can appear numerous times, despite not being the returning champion. This version is also played as a four-person tournament, with whoever the returning champion is usually sitting in the right-side position during his or her game. The show is executive produced by Riley and Chelsea Tarkington, who also serves as producer. Gameplay Main game Four contestants, one a returning champion, play tournament style, with the returning champion usually playing the second game. In the game that the champion does not play, whoever is randomly selected to sit in the left position begins; otherwise, it is the challenger. The first player begins the game by shouting "spin" or something to that effect to set a slot machine in motion. The wheels on the machine each contained five different categories, which were revealed to the contestants before the game, and a Joker, which served as a "wild card" and could represent any category. After the wheels stopped, the contestant chose one of the displayed categories and was asked a question in it. If the contestant answered correctly, the value of the question was added to his or her score. An incorrect response or a failure to answer within an unspecified time limit allowed the opponent a chance to answer and steal the money. Certain special categories gave contestants a chance to win extra money, by either increasing the question value or allowing them to answer more than one question on their turn. An example of the latter was the "Fast Forward" category, which enabled a contestant to continue to answer until he/she stopped or answered incorrectly. Question values The values of the questions are determined by the spin. Categories are worth $50, $100, or $200 if they appear in one, two, or all three windows, respectively. In addition, spinning a "natural triple" (three of a kind with no Jokers) awards a bonus of $50, but only to the player that spun it. If the opponent steals the natural triple, they cannot claim the bonus. Any pair or triple that does not contain a Joker has to be played for its full value if chosen. Jokers When one or two Jokers come up during a spin, a contestant can use them to match any displayed category and create a pair or triple, increasing the value of the question. They can also substitute a Joker for a category in play but not displayed on the wheels (which is referred to as going "off the board") for $50 using one Joker or $100 using two Jokers. In addition, if a contestant spins a natural pair and a Joker, he or she can discard the pair but use the Joker to go "off the board" in that category for $50. Spinning three Jokers will win the game for a contestant, provided they correctly answer a question from any of the five categories, as chosen by the opponent. The rule of having the opponent pick a player's "triple Joker" category did not exist in the original television show, and was added as an additional challenge in order to win the game; an opponent can pick a category that the contestant may not have much knowledge of. A correct answer automatically won the game, regardless of the contestant's score or whether a full round had been played or not. If unsuccessful, however, the opponent could not steal and the game continued as normal. Using Jokers was optional, and contestants occasionally declined to use them if enough money was at stake for their opponent to win the game or take the lead (e.g., spinning a natural pair and a Joker, then playing the pair for $100 instead of turning it into a $200 triple). By playing this way, the opponent had less of an advantage if the contestant missed the question and the opponent answered it correctly. Winning the game Each game is played in rounds, with each player guaranteed a turn unless one spun three Jokers and answered correctly. If the challenger (or player sitting in the left position) reached or surpassed $500 on the first turn of the round, the champion (or player sitting in the right position) had one last chance to spin either three Jokers or a combination that would tie or beat that score. Either player could win the game by reaching $500 with a correct answer to a question missed by the other. If a round ended with the scores tied at $500 or more, the game continued until the deadlock was broken. "Face the Devil" The wheels now have various amounts of money ($25, $50, $75, $100, $150 and $200 money cards) and "the Devil". There was only one Devil slide on only one of the wheels. If the Devil did not appear on a spin, the total of the displayed amounts was added to the pot. Scoring $1,000 or more without spinning the Devil ended the game. Spinning a natural triple automatically wins the bonus round, awarding either $1,000 total or the total in the pot plus the value of the triple, whichever was greater. If the Devil comes up, the round ends and the accumulated money reset to $0. After every "safe" spin, the contestant has the option to stop. The goal wasn't to necessarily get to $1,000; the bonus round was simply played to help determine who was sitting where in the final round of play, so usually once someone has accumulated enough money to sit in the right-side position of the final game, they will usually stop. The bonus round is not played following the final game of the episode. Contestants Main article: List of The Joker's Wild contestants Episodes Main article: List of The Joker's Wild episodes Category:Browse